We took three teams to the Southeast regional qualifiers of the English Schools Swimming Association’s (ESSA) Secondary Schools Team Relay Championships at the Pavilions in the Park, Horsham.
The three teams were made up of senior girls, intermediate boys and junior girls. This year the qualifier was split over two dates, so Hurst elected to swim in the second gala.
The senior girls’ team of Flossie N, Georgie C, Maddy L and Bella L swam first, winning the freestyle relay heat in time of 1:59.22. Their medley relay was a tight finish, catching up with Steyning Grammar in the last 50m. Unfortunately, they narrowly missed out on first place, with Steyning just holding on for the win. The race produced some great individual split times and personal bests for our girls.
The junior girls – Lotty M, Eve M, Alex Y and Sophia M – also swam well, finishing second in their heat in the freestyle relay, and third in the medley event.
Following the girls’ heats, the intermediate boys’ team of James M, Luca C-F, Morten D and Jacob W took to the starting blocks and swam the fastest time of 2:01.24 in the Freestyle heat. They followed that up in the medley relay with an impressive (and fastest) time of 2:15.19, with Jonathan A in place of Luca C-F.
It remains to be seen if any of the teams will qualify for the national finals in November. The compiled results of the regional heats will be published in the next few days but nevertheless, they all swam their best and put in some great individual performances.
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